Step 7: Polishing

Step 8: Final Assembly and Enjoy!

For the Final Assembly of the sword it's time to bring all the hard work together to make a beautiful sword. #1 slide the crossguard onto the handl...

This is a sword i made for a good friend a couple years ago. It's one of the few i've taken pictures of most of the process of making it. Usually i just zone out and go at it. This sword took me about a week of working late nights after my day job to make. There are many different ways to make swords, this will show you how i made This one.

The process of stock removal in blade making is more modern. With the right materials these blades can hold up pretty well, but the ones i make are mainly for art and decoration, tho. they will hold up to some abuse and are able to be handled. The quality of your sword all depends on the materials you use, the design you make, and the time your willing to put into it.

I've been building on my sword making skills here and there since i was younger. I started out with a hack saw and a file. One day I'd like to make my own forge and actually Forge swords, but for now, this is my method.

Step 1: Safety, Materials and Tools

Safety First!

Before you begin any project remember to protect yourself. Wear Eye Protection, Wear Gloves, and Wear Hearing Protection with loud tools. When welding make sure you use a good welding helmet and thick leather welding gloves, and ear plugs arn't a bad idea, hot sparks in the ear really hurt. Long sleeves or a welding jacket are also a good idea.

More Safety!!!

This method uses grinders, a welder and deals alot with really HOT metal. Be sure to be AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS. Work in a ventillated area. Make sure there is nothing flamable in the area your working in. sparks will fly everywhere and anywhere. Keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case. Also a bucket of water helps to cool pieces your working on because if your welding it, or grinding it, It will be HOT. use pliers or thick leather gloves to pick up pieces that are hot and cool them in water if you need to handle them.

Materials, most of which are pictured below, include:
-1 - 2" x 1/4" x 3' steel bar -( for the blade)
-1 section of 1" x 1/2" steel bar -( for the crossguard)
-1 section of 1/2" round steel stock -(for the claws on the pommel)
-1 1 1/2" round x 1 1'2"long section of round steel bar -( for pommel)
-1 large nut, a little smaller that a trailor hitch ball nut -(for pommel)
-1 old claw foot glass insert ( could probably use a marble or something- (for pommel)
-1 piece of aluminum tubing/pipe, that the glass will fit tightly in, and will fit tightly into the nut used for pommel.
-1 piece of hard wood for the grips of handle.
-2 or 3 small machine screws and nuts for countersinking through wood grips to metal handle part of blade.
- vinyl or leather for wraping the handle.
-quality wire to wrap on handle.

Your materials may vary depending on your design. This is just basicly what i used.

Tools:
I use a wide variety of air, electric, and hand tools. The most expensive tool you could need in this project is a Mig welder. Your project can be as elaborate or simple as you want depending on your design, budget, and what you have to work with.
Here are some of the tools I used in this project:

A sword needs to be a sword, not just a pretty bit of metal. There is no doubting your ability to fashion a pretty bit of metal shaped like a sword from a piece of metal but really unless you are using some knowledge of metallurgy they are just decorations.

The Japanese used high carbon steels, about 1.8 - 2.00%carbon. They covered the blade with clay and then exposed the edge. When the sword was quenched it hardened the cutting edge while the main section remained tough due to cooling slower.

The Damascus blade relied on controlled cooling by plunging the red hot steel, that matched the colour of the setting sun, through the body of a Nubian slave.

English blades were stretched and doubled over then hammer rewelded a few times to give the strength of wrought iron.

And so on from using the urine of a red headed boy to quench the steel to using the urine of a goat fed only on ferns.

Unfortunately your's seem to be just shaped out of any old steel, with no attempt to turn the pretty steel thing into a real sword..

Actually you are mistaken about the Japanese, Damascus, and English blades.

There are multiple styles of Japanese swords, but most of them contained about 50% plain Iron, and 50% steel(known as tamahagane). The "legendary" folding/welding technique was meant to homogenize the Iron and Steel, giving the swords the edge holding capabilities of Steel and the flexibility and toughness of Iron. Also some used a core of Iron with steel plates forge welded along the outside of the blade to make the cutting edges.

Damascus blades get their characteristics from their steel as well. They were made from what is now known as Wootz Steel, which again is a combination of steel and iron. Also there is no evidence of quenching by driving a sword through a slave, and for good reason. It would ruin the blade. Also, slaves were much too expensive to do that with.

Now as for English blades, they primarily used blister steel, which is of an inferior quality from Wootz steel. They also would combine the blister steel with plain Iron to add flexibility and toughness to the blades, and would fold, or twist or both to combine the two. Also while it's probably possible to get an ok quench from urine, it still wouldn't be as good as plain water or oil. Most likely the urine was used as an etchant, due to ammonia content.

awesome work .....i too started making swords with a hack saw and a handfull of files. what a lot of ppl dont realize, that a quallity file well maintained will remove a lot of stock without a whole lot of effort. Ive always been a blade nut...so many knives i lost count, 6 swords, and a few battle axes. some i made and some bought. i wish i had your detail skills. soon i`ll be posting my hand files brass gears for the steampunkers, would have been easilly done with my dremal, but like i said, ppl would be amazed at what a great file can do.

you seem to be quite gifted in blade making. i applaude your skill. have you ever tried making a blade as tall as a man i.e 6ft? i tried but it didnt turn out exactly as planned and i have to crop it down. any tips?

Nice work,,I have made a broadsword years ago not as pretty as yours,I used leaf springs from junk yard very cheap but better stock than what you will find at homedepot.for the moey you get about 5 leaves per spring assembly.a simple forge can get it hot enough to straighten and will take major abuse.once again Deathatsix very nice work.

I actually have a bunch of leafsprings. doing collision repair every so often we have to replace some and i grab what i can. tho reciently du to needing some money i scrapped some. still have some just havn't had time to work with it. Good advice! and thanks for the compliment.

Sure it could be tempered and heat treated before completion. I don't yet but that's just due to lack of the equipment I'd need. There is more then one way to get the results but that's easily searched through people with experience.

Very beautiful! You make wonderful blades, your knowledge and photos would be appreciated at http://sinza.forumotion.com/forum.htm :D I am a member myself and it's a pretty cool place. If you join, tell 'm CCK sent you ;) Wonderful work, I love it!

i probably could make one. there's alot of them out there and it would probably be cheaper to find one that suits your needs somewhere else. if you can't find one out there then i guess i could make you one but depending on style, size and other stuff it could be pricy compared to something premade.

most impressive!! especially your expertise with a dremel tool. I always end up with divots in the metal when I try to use one for fine detail work, from it catching and skipping along the metal. Very nice

Forged swords may be stronger, but wall-art needs little strength. This is a great route for people who want purely decorative swords, and I'd bet much, much cheaper than forging. Deathatsix, I like the look of that blade. How many other swords have you made by this method? A slideshow of your work might be merited.

Much appreciated. and i've already made a slideshow with some of my works, though this would probably be my mose elaborate work to date. it can be found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Swords-Daggers-and-Axes/

About This Instructable

Bio:i'm a person who dosn't believe in "i can't". sometimes you just have to. and when you can't afford it, you just have to make it. needless to say i spend most of my money on tools of all sorts, and s...read more »